JI, PTI at loggerheads again on curriculum issue

PESHAWAR: Jamaat Islami (JI) is again at loggerheads with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on the issue of changes in curricula. JI provincial head Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said that his party had joined the provincial government only on one condition that the curricula will be kept safe from secularism.

The allies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government are up against each other once again. JI has not only declared some of the images in the books of science subjects in senior classes as immoral but also maintains that these images are leaving negative impression on the minds of the students.

Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said that JI joined the provincial government only on the condition that the education system will be kept safe from the effects of secularism.

On the other hand, the provincial government believes that the images published in the science subjects’ course books are not leaving any negative impression on the minds of the students and they are learning from these images in fact. Advisor to KP Chief Minister, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, says that PTI wasn’t trying to secularise the curriculum and JI should have talked to PTI if it had any problems.

JI minister Inayat Ullah, however, has differs with his party’s stance on the matter. He said that the standing committee on education discussed modernisation of the curriculum but the Islamic teachings were not being changed.

The allies in KP government have had differences on the curriculum in the past as well and now this gulf seems to be widening.